Join The Trading Room

Apple Chart Holds ‘Good News’ for Retailers

By Rick Ackerman Posted on November 27, 2012, 12:01 am EST Last Updated November 27, 2012, 2:12 am EST

Apple shares recovered some of their old mojo with last week’s 10% rally, lending buoyancy to a market that was already pumped full of helium for Wall Street’s traditional observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Nearly all of the stock’s gains came on a gap-up opening last Monday, but it is important to note that AAPL held onto those gains, consolidating over several days for, presumably, yet another burst in the week ahead.  Our immediate target is 580.92, which would represent a gain of $10 over Friday’s closing price. However, if buyers are able to push even slightly past that price target, they’d become an odds-on bet to continue to the next, at least, at 607.25. Both numbers are derived from our proprietary method, Hidden Pivot Analysis, and they leave us somewhat upbeat about the holiday shopping season.  Although we’re not expecting any sales records to be broken, business should be upbeat if Apple and a couple of other retail bellwethers merely maintain the status quo.

One of those bellwethers is Fedex, a stock we watch closely for clues about the actual state of the economy. Five weeks ago, FDX’s charts looked so strong that we inferred that the U.S. would finish the year on a strong upswing.  However, in the weeks since, FDX has receded somewhat, suggesting that business will continue at a moderate pace, at least through December.

Bullish on Facebook

In the meantime, we hold bullish tracking positions in Google (just exited) and Facebook.  The former was initiated on a purely technical signal — a “Hidden Pivot” correction target that worked very precisely.  In Facebook, the recommendation was based not on technical factors alone, but also on a gut feeling that the company has finally come up with a great new way to make money. We had been looking for the stock to plunge below $14 when we read about a new Facebook service that will allow one to send not only the usual, perfunctory birthday/anniversary greetings to friends and family, but an inexpensive gift such as chocolates or flowers.  Retailers are going to flock to this one-click feature, and it therefore seems likely to produce solid revenues for Facebook even in hard times.

Accordingly, when the stock turned weak recently, we told subscribers to buy a dozen March 30 calls for 0.50, and a dozen more for 0.25 as Facebook fell further still.  Subsequently, when FB shares staged a powerful rally last week, we recommended shorting March 33 calls against our March 30s for 0.50.  This was easily accomplished on Friday, leaving us with a vertical bull spread that has the potential to produce a gain of as much as $7,500 on an initial, unmargined outlay of just $900.  The kicker is that there is no loss possible; for even if the stock were to fall to zero, the spread would yield a profit of $300 – nearly enough to pay for a year’s subscription to Rick’s Picks.  That was the intention of the recommendation, incidentally – to give even inexperienced traders a chance to recoup the cost of a subscription.  (Click here to see for yourself if you could have followed our simple instructions for legging into a virtually riskless “vertical” call spread. Your free trial subscription will also allow you to receive real-time e-mails notifications of similar opportunities if they should arrive.)

  • redwilldanaher November 28, 2012, 3:45 am

    More on our best of all possible worlds organic markets Gary:

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-11-27/head-feds-trading-desk-speaks-role-feds-interactions-financial-markets-and-emh

  • gary leibowitz November 27, 2012, 4:32 pm

    I follow Reggie Middleton and in the end he is almost always right. While I see AAPL and FB as a good short term buy, I must admit Reggies’s argument for their eventual fall is compelling. This guy is an accountant and he churns the numbers and trend very well. The Android system is overtaking all others, and even with AAPL’s elite persona, without ever innovative new products in the works, they will lose their market share. As for FB, while the mobile revenue stream is going to help their bottom line Reggie thinks it will never be enough to justify their share price.

    Personally I like AAPL and will avoid FB for the near future. I must however heed his advice for the long term.

    Regarding the very slanted arguments on tax hikes for the upper-middle class, it really doesn’t carry any weight.
    The hikes are intended to right the very slanted give-aways over the past decade, where their rewards have been clearly shown against the less fortunate. The Democrats proposed a 10 for 1 spending cut to tax hike over the last 2 years, but most here seem to ignore his fact. If I was the Republicans I would hold that ratio as a firm commitment to enact both immediately.

    How can we cut social programs when the disparity between the haves and have nots are at an all time high, surpassing the late 20’s by a good margin. Can no one see that the policies over the last 3 decades pushed the ownership of America to the top few, like never before. Is it so hard to grasp that sacrific should be shared. The term sacrific is really a poor one since the tax hikes will in no way alter the lifestyle of most, while the drastic social cuts needed will.

    To argue that taxs are too high for the upper middle class smacks against reality. To argue that the drastic social program cuts needed to reduce our deficit will not cause major hardship also goes against common sense.

    The Democrats know the tax hikes will not reduce the deficit by much, but to allow this disparity to go on will destroy the ideological differences between the parties. We need a sense of fairness when deepening hardships occur.

    BTW, my rant over FOX and their national Enquirer approuch to any non ulta-right wing politial stance has reached an all-time low. I appologize for my rant but I happened to allow myself to view their “news” casts recently and was shocked to hear the outragous sleazy right wind conspiracies and extreme disrespect for the Presidency. They have never acknowledged anything good coming out of this administration, not even the death of Bin Laden. In fact they down played his role and criticized such things as allowing the immediate burial at sea., the increased tensions between our allies because of his actions. I must remember to avoid their circus show to prevent my blood pressure from htting the roof. Lesson learnt.

    • redwilldanaher November 27, 2012, 6:12 pm

      Here’s a rant for you that I won’t retract or apologize for EVER…

      Hi Gary, I don’t want to “work” with you. I don’t want to “compromise” and I don’t want a “bipartisan” solution. I am adverse to slowly poisoning myself.

      There are at least tens of millions like me and hopefully it will be hundreds of millions before too long. You have to be insane to believe that the “Democrats” are offering anything but more rope with which to hang yourself. By all means, if you and the other zombies want to continue to commit societal suicide, go right ahead and do it but don’t lecture the rest of us because we don’t won’t to listen to your audible insanities nor read them either. It’s amazing how one can read history and not fully comprehend why people have acted in such self destructive ways. It’s another thing to watch it happen in real time.

    • gary leibowitz November 27, 2012, 6:19 pm

      Sorry for the skipped letters and misspelling. My bad.

      Regarding the stock market my screaming bullish views over the last 2 months will be seen very soon. Everything is in place. Consumer spending, confidence, factory orders, business spending, housing, low rates, etc.. Everything! SPX should see 1600 to 1650 in 3 to 6 months time. The previous high flyers will once again fly high. Commodities will join the parade. I have once again placed bets in the ETF arena for a big move. I might be one week early, but the downside should be limited. I have been whipped out and in this market since the summer 3 times. Treaded water that time, but expect a straight vertical move soon. Holiday spending will be the best in 6 years. I know I am repeating myself for 2 months now, but all the data points are confirming my optimism.

      The last hurrah!

      &&&&&

      What, specifically, are your “bets” in the ETF arena, Gary? Incidentally, I try to discourage my subscribers from using ETFs, since they were designed to appeal to suckers, especially those who think that making directional bets with puts and calls is a winning play. You get better odds wagering on the Big Six wheel at a casino, or buying $1 lottery tickets. RA

    • gary leibowitz November 27, 2012, 6:30 pm

      Red,
      Me, I pick the slowwww poison. I never said the fairness policy, if enacted, would work. I do beleive we should help the helpless in dire times, instead of taking a clinical business approach. I would rather see a slow sinking ship with plenty of time for life rafts as opposed to blowing it up in one swift motion.
      I find a strange analogy to the atomic bombing of Japan verses a longer ground war. The end result was inevitable either way. Which one though was more humane? I have my answer.

    • Rick Ackerman November 27, 2012, 9:46 pm

      You really do need to get a life, Gary. For starters, take your stock picks and valueless hunches to another forum, since “technicals” rule here. And while you’re at it, please spare us any further wisdom from Reggie the Accountant. Facebook is up more than 40% in the last two weeks, presumably for a reason. Here’s what my subscribers did exactly as the stock was bottoming:

      I’m tracking 24 Mar 30 calls acquired for an average 0.375. Continue to offer 24 March 33 calls short against them for 0.50. If successful, we’ll have legged into a vertical bull spread that cannot lose. The best we could do would be to make $7500 on the position if Facebook is trading $33 or higher come March expiration. And the worst? That would be with the stock below $30, which would still produce a trading gain of $300. The stock, meanwhile, looks bound for the 25.36 target of the pattern shown, having blown through its ‘p’ midpoint sibling at 22.12 on Friday. _______ UPDATE (11:15 a.m. EST): There are 7 billion people on the planet, but when Facebook gapped higher on this morning’s opening, evidently not a one of them was bidding for March 33 calls. The options just sat there as a result, and so we’ll continue to offer them short, hoping for a modicum of interest if the stock continues higher as I expect. _______ UPDATE (November 23, 1::04 p.m. EST): We caught a gust of wind on the opening — a head-fake that allowed us to short the calls for 0.50 before they topped at 0.55 and the stock receded into negative territory. As noted above, this spread can’t lose. The absolute worst we can do is come away with a $300 profit if the stock collapses. However, we stand to make as much as $2400 a point, up to $7500, if the stock is above $30 come March. Incidentally, the calls themselves had a pattern that projected a top of at least short-term importance at 0.58.

    • redwilldanaher November 27, 2012, 10:47 pm

      Gary, here’s hoping that you’ll be as “successful” as your fellow collaborator. I’m still laughing at your lament over “Tim Osman” being buried at sea even as I lament the fact that collaborators such as yourself currently outnumber the rest of us…

      As for the retailers, ETFs, the indices, Goog, AAPL et al., I remain where I always am: “Nothing would surprise me” anymore after watching the day in day out manipulation of all things for over two decades. There was a piece on ZH, a place that Reggie frequents as I’m sure you know, that focused on this being the age of illusionists. Maybe you should give it a read…

      http://itmakessenseblog.com/2011/01/28/george-soros-says-he-feels-no-remorse-for-collaborating-with-nazis-during-wwii-to-send-his-fellow-jews-to-the-death-camps-steal-their-property/

  • Jacques Redou November 26, 2012, 7:11 pm

    Wealth is:

    Physical Health – Not just the lack of sickness, but strength, stamina, energy.

    Social Health – Friends, family, community in harmony.

    Mental Health – Positive attitude, lack of fear, adaptibility, awareness.

    A Clean Beautiful and Safe
    Environment

    Hope for the future and a reasonable expectation that the future will be better.

    All these have been sacrificed for the ILLUSION of wealth.

    The wealthy man sits in his house with a big stack of money. He looks out the window (through the burglar bars) at crime, addiction,
    dirty air, dirty water, sick people, corruption and War.
    He turns to his moneybought
    woman and says:

    I’m glad we are isolated from these things.

    She says:

    Close the blinds dear.

    The rich man’s name is Esau.

    • mario cavolo November 27, 2012, 4:20 am

      Hi Jacques, well stated outline of the parameters of true wellbeing… Yet I would say, 1. We can’t condemn ourselves for isolating ourselves to a degree from the bad stuff all around us. That’s reasonable should one be able in their circumstances to do so. And 2. I’m sure by accident, you left out the other part which is charity, giving, helping those in need, those for whom the present circumstance is in fact very bad, whose future will not be brighter and who are truly incapable of making it brighter for themselves. In my own case, I don’t give money to obvious street beggars (though we know its not always easy to judge) but I do always give money to street workers, especially elderly musicians who are sitting playing their instrument. They’re doing something in return, they’re gigging, they’re working for the dime that gets tossed their way.

    • Chuck November 27, 2012, 9:19 pm

      In fact it does make you wonder just what these kool-aid drinkers will have as excuses when the sh– hits the proverbial fan. I’m almost positive it will be the sort of twisted spin they are throwing at us now….just the opposite direction. Of course, they will blame it on someone else.

  • roger erickson November 26, 2012, 6:18 pm

    others are touting orthogonal data streams regarding Facebook;

    [A tech blogger wrote … : “I didn’t realize that FB’s last quarter was a net loss on a GAAP basis. I should be paying more attention I guess.” ]

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-tavakoli/facebooks-fraud-problem-w_b_2190575.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications

  • BigTom November 26, 2012, 10:50 am

    OMG – you guys really believe this stuff–“I would also comfortably suggest that in response, Americans are going to quietly start taking care of themselves by stepping out of the official system …you guyz are nutz….holy moly. There ain’t no steppin outside this sytstem. You guyz have no idea what is coming down the pike! I could say it more politely but it is getting late!

    • Buster November 26, 2012, 12:45 pm

      With people in America now being prosecuted for the apparently insidious crime of growing food in their own front gardens with which to feed their families, I tend to agree with you, Tom. In fact, forcing all the sheeple into the fold of big government & corporations is very apparent today, which is a clear distinguishing mark of a Corporate Fascist system which we live under, if any more evidence was really necessary.

    • Buster November 26, 2012, 2:27 pm

      This woman had the audacity to not only try to feed herself, but also grow herbs for her ailments. She really should have known better. The governments’s just trying to do it’s duty of making sure we all get our daily dose of Monsanto feed along with our drugs from big pharma, let’s face it!

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=m7VN123cW2k

      &&&&&&

      The very scary documentary ‘Farmageddon’ begins with a woman recounting how a Federal SWAT team, rifles and pistols drawn, descended on her household co-op one morning to confiscate…raw milk. The film also documents, among other things, Monsanto’s relentless jihad against farmers who possess or process seeds other than Monsanto’s patented hybrids.

      It also tells the saga of a couple who complied with enormous red tape to legally import a herd of sheep. The entire herd was seized early one morning by Feds with guns and autopsied for mad cow disease, which is not known to infect sheep. The autopsy results were sequestered, and the couple was suing to make them public at the time the film was made.

      This film is must viewing for Mario and others who think it will be easily possible for people to grow, and share, their own food if very hard times descend on the USA. RA

    • mario cavolo November 26, 2012, 4:02 pm

      You guys are are scaring the heck out of me, my aunt has a garden, what’s the problem exactly?

      Meanwhile, private barter exchange and discounting will increase massively, its easy and there is no way anyone can know about it except the parties involved…”I cut your lawn, fix your pipes, paint your walls, you give me dinner credits at your restaurant, my family eats.” Uncle Sam can’t touch that…

      Cheers, Mario

      &&&&&&

      Better tell your aunt to partner up with the local militia, Mario. The co-op mentioned above was a non-commercial, not-for-profit association formed by the woman and her neighbors. That didn’t stop the Feds from raiding the place in flak vests, weapons drawn. They held her and her children in the living room for most of the day while they searched the premises for such harmful substances as goat cheese. She was not allowed to use the telephone, but the kids, under armed guard, were evidently permitted to use the bathroom. RA

    • Chuck November 26, 2012, 7:32 pm

      so much for the ‘I will just move to a farm and live’ idea…..as a federal worker here in DC – I have noticed the tremendous increase in people and traffic in this area. the roads cannot support all of this traffic….also, I do suppose if you pay feds at these salaries, they will be happy to do the bidding of the administration…..

    • Oregon November 26, 2012, 7:47 pm

      I feel for the lady getting her plants removed, but let’s not get too dramatic.

      First, this is a municipal matter, not some Fed/Monsanto conspiracy.

      Second, these covenants deal with the front yard so I doubt if they cut down her back yard.

      Third, she says, “”Not only are the plants my livelihood, they’re my food and I was unemployed at the time and had no food left…”. Now this part is just bullshit. It is EXTREMELY difficult to get even 20% of ones diet from a home garden, and I would guess she wasn’t even getting 5% when they cut down her front yard.

      Lastly, why do “starving” people in this country look so much different than starving people in every other country?

      I dislike Monsanto, Feds, and Popos as much as anyone here, but let’s just keep things in perspective.

    • Buster November 26, 2012, 10:09 pm

      Oregon, I too thought that even as I was watching it, but note the fact that the plants were actually within height regulations, but they still ripped them out. On summation of similar acts across various sectors of our society & economy I am more inclined to be suspicious of the real motives of the powerz that be than I used to in my innocence. Maybe we all need some firsthand experience before we can realize this, I don’t know?
      BTW Rick, ‘The Future of Food’ is another good account of the abhorrent crimes of Monsanto as well (as the the Judicial system for that matter!) Of particular note is the info on the terminator gene implementation. It should be a real eye opener for all who believes we can reason with these criminals, as well as realizing the logical conclusion that this planet is gonna’ need some help or else; but I will check out ‘Farmageddon’ too, thanks.

    • Mario cavolo November 27, 2012, 2:28 am

      When you don’t have a choice, as many govts dont give you, then you stick with what you can, thats life. Passive aggressive behavior is a bullshit way of blaming the other guy and claiming innocent. It’s similar to “it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” , which I otherwise love. Chinese are masters of passive aggressive behavior, a woman nonchalantly walking diagonally across the intersection with child in tow, quietly daring one of the maniac public bus drivers to hit them, is a common sight and perfect example…ditto perhaps raw milk and a cow in your suburban neighborhood where you”re not even allowed to park your car on the street or build a wood cabinet in your garage because you will disturb your neighbors. Yet you bought the place knowing the rules….

      Cheers, Mario

    • Mario cavolo November 27, 2012, 2:31 am

      Hi buster, it’s always something, in France, it’s flax seed oil that’s “banned” and illegal….because it’s toxic when heated, etc.

  • Sreenath November 26, 2012, 8:55 am

    Rick, The 60 min chart of Apple as you put seems to be showing a bullish sign, but the daily chart seems to indicate a ‘top’. Will AAPL first pull back a little before going up? If so, is it possible to reasonably predict a good entry point please?

    &&&&&

    Relax, Sreenath. With a little diligence, you could be answering these questions yourself before the week is out. Once you’ve signed up for the January 16-17 webinar, you can take the entire course at your leisure in six hour-long recorded segments.     RA

  • mario cavolo November 26, 2012, 5:54 am

    Hi Rick, you wisely allowed for “somewhat upbeat about the holiday shopping season”, as it seems to be a surprie to the upside.

    I will stick with deeper conviction my ongoing “schism” view as to simply and accurately explain how this seeming economic disparity can be.

    The lives and economic livelihood of the bottom 60-100 million Americans is in decline for various reasons, which I won’t go into here.

    Yet, for the rest of the American population, much as a result of those same forces, their livelihoods are better than ever.

    The situation,we all know, is unfair in many ways. Looking at the unfolding from a macro view, looking back over the centuries at the historical cycles of societies, the rise and fall of countries, city-states, across the world, the current state of affairs is familiar, with its winners and its losers falling in place along the way.

    On the time of the Greeks, from J.M. Robert’s The New Penguin History of the World…

    “Thebes was then razed to the ground and its population enslaved (335BC)….This was the real end of four centuries of Greek history.”

    While there are other factors they are not responsible for, the U.S. and corporate banking system is creating a form of this societal enslavement. And henceforth, like it or not, the only response that will go hand in hand is the continuing move in U.S. society towards socialism and totalitarianism.

    Because, to be blunt, the A-holes who have rigged the system, corrupted the system, and gotten themselves filthy rich far out of reasonable proportions to the rest of the society, and at the expense of the society, now must somehow make provision for the lower/middle class “commune” that has been created along the way.

    Even in retail, we see the forces of megastores like Walmart and Sam’s club moving the society in this socialist direction. Worse, The now 50 million “have-nots” collecting their money, no, not money, not USD, and not earning but collecting, their entitlement of govt coupons and credits to plastic cards known commonly as food stamps, redeemed for their household basics.

    This is simply the direction we see the U.S. society moving – more of an economically two-tiered population than ever. Yet, it is not fair to wholly blame the bureacrats and greedy because many other powerful factors, mainly the innovations in IT/tech/telecom have shifted the economics of the society. “You make great buggy whips George, but we don’t need buggy whips anymore”. That’s not the politicians fault.

    Now, in the end, while I remain politically neutral, I must say it is obvious the wealthy have gotten away with murder and along the way should have been taxed more, and now should be taxed more. That is more than reasonable considering that CEO pay used to be around 50 times avg. employee pay and is now over 300 times avg employee pay. Huh? Should the wealthy be favored to accumulate so much cash, suck it out of the society, yet also get tax breaks while the income of their lower/middle class employees has barely budged in the past ten years? Well, that sure as heck doesn’t sound right and we can see the damage. Such a state of affairs puts me in favor of higher taxes for those that have absconded with the wealth. Yet, as noted elsewhere, the other systemic banking system problems, the FED’s horrifying “welfare for the wealthy” policy have taken this problem to new levels of economic horror (intentionally?), and so even taxing the wealthy as they should be in their obscene accumulation of wealth would barely put a dent in the systemic problem. So, that’s that.

    Back to Apple, as I know of two “gurus” who call for Apple’s doom and are short, hmm, I don’t buy their view at all. They are missing the boat.

    Related to our economic concerns and Apple, let me reiterate that any and all calls for a supposed domestic collapse of China, remain, in two mild words, ridiculous and idiotic. Let me throw in naive and ignorant for good measure. While of course a global recession can come and be annoying as hell, Jim Rogers and I remain in the same macro-bullish China camp which is deeply intertwined with global economic happenings. Not so? At your peril, friends.

    Cheers Mario

    Cheers, Mario

    • Rick Ackerman November 26, 2012, 6:13 am

      A crucial fact concerning Obama’s tax-the-rich scheme that invariably goes unmentioned here is that his threshold for “the rich” is $200,000 for single-income households.

      However, no matter how you define “the rich,” taxing them even at 100% would not begin to balance the budget. Clearly, the sole reason for such a tax has less to do with the budget than with venting the envy of those who are not content merely to pay no income tax themselves.

    • mario cavolo November 26, 2012, 6:35 am

      I would say its easy to agree that the $200,000 threshold is way too low. Folks in that range are not the ones in the category of wealth accumulators I am thinking of. I can’t say I know how to tackle, define and measure the right metrics to implement, just that the system is obviously way out of balance and out of control. Well, no arguments on that from anyone here at Rick’s. There are many more problems of favoritism, elitism, crony capitalism, etc. far beyond adjustments to the tax code.

      I would also comfortably suggest that in response, Americans are going to quietly start taking care of themselves by stepping out of the official system, doing more business in private barter and cash, easily hidden, which is of course far more prevalent, for example, here in Asia/China, to the tune of trillions of “off the books” GDP per year from the top to bottom of the society.

    • Farmer November 26, 2012, 1:14 pm

      My view of the 200,000 dollar threshhold is that it may be strategically linked to the belief in serious future inflation that results in income growth as an outcome of lost purchasing power.

      That is to say that sharp wage increases as the dollar declines in power will ultimately lead to the entire middle class facing a tax regime they never dreamed possible.

      Today they are willing to jump on the bandwagon of “tax the rich” while tomorrow they will be the ones paying the bill. Sticking it to those in this defined tax bracket may well turn out to be a double edged sword that the electorate swallows and cannot easily disavow later on.

      Just a hunch of course but the number has been simultaneously set so high and so low that I have to wonder what the pencil-pushers have determined true inflation to be in the future.

    • Andrew Gutterman November 26, 2012, 3:29 pm

      I have a small collection of travel brochures from the early thirties. Reading them one gets the quite obvious implication that although the Depression was rough for many, for others it didn’t even happen. My own family reflects that. My mom told us she didn’t really notice the Depression as her family was quite comfortable, it was the war that was rough. Rationing and all that. Ditto for my Father’s side of the family. My grandfather actually got richer because of the depression, he ran a chain of men’s clothing stores, and told the shirt companies if they could make a shirt that sold for a dollar everyone would win. They did and he got rich selling them. But the war? Nobody escaped that.

      As for taxing the rich, that isn’t going to balance the budget but it will bring in more revenue. The budget solution is much less spending plus more revenue. I cannot believe someone who makes $1 million or more per year cannot afford an extra 10% going to Uncle Sam to pay for the BIG government that all of the wealthy voted for, in order to take care of the poor they created by getting so rich in the first place.

      But nothing anyone is doing is going to solve the concentration of wealth problem at the top that will bring down the economy. We just have to go through it again, I’m just not sure when. So far everything looks good and I’m glad as I’m about to triple my income and would like some time to enjoy it.

      Andy

      &&&&&&&

      Higher marginal rates are not guaranteed to bring in more revenue, as countless studies have shown. RA

    • mario cavolo November 26, 2012, 3:57 pm

      Hi Andy!

      ” I cannot believe someone who makes $1 million or more per year cannot afford an extra 10% going to Uncle Sam to pay for the BIG government that all of the wealthy voted for, in order to take care of the poor they created by getting so rich in the first place. ”

      That’s saying it so well, thanks!

      Cheers, Mario

    • fallingman November 26, 2012, 5:22 pm

      To say some people are poor because other people are rich makes as much sense as saying some people are sick because other people are healthy.

      You can argue, as I do, that a chosen few are given unequal access and unfair advantage and that, as a result, they get richer while many get poorer. But that’s not the same argument and you sloppily conflate the two.

      Did Thomas Edison get rich? Did Steve Jobs get rich?

      Did they created a wave a poverty as a result?

      Uh, no.

      Did Franklin Raines get rich? Did Jon Corzine get rich? Yeah. Did they make a lot of people poorer? Yeah.

      How you make the money matters…by creating value or by using your state-granted privileged position to suppress competition, screw people, and get away with it. Raines got away with fraud. Cozine got away with theft.

      Can we not please make this simple distinction instead of mindlessly attacking wealth creation in and of itself? When you speak about the “wealthy” and the “rich,” you lump everyone together.

      Where’s the intellectual rigor in that? Does stereotyping a whole class of people seem fair to you?

    • Mario cavolo November 27, 2012, 2:16 am

      Great and important reminder Fallingman, thanks a lot, Mario

    • redwilldanaher November 27, 2012, 5:56 pm

      I’m hoping someone can help me to solve a problem that I have. I cannot figure out what a “fair share” is. My brother and I both live in Simple Land which taxes income at 10%. My brother earned 100,000 unconstitutionally printed fiats last year and I earned 10,000 unconstitutionally printed fiats in comparison. At the end of the year, through payroll deduction, my brother had paid 10,000 fiats
      to the Ministry of Confiscation while I paid 1,000 fiats to the very same department of the legalized mafia in Simple Land. My brother, the good soul that he is, paid 10x the amount of fiats that I paid because we are taxed at the same rate. Yes, it’s a simple percentage calculation but I still can’t figure out which one of us didn’t pay our fair share. Please help!


Exit From This Page Back to Trades